Copy 1 



On The Control of Sugar-Cane Insects. 



Copyright 1919, by Fred Reinlein, 1751 Derby St., Portland, Ore. 

Circular No. 155. May 16, 1919 



The world's increasing demand for sugar is resulting in in- 
creased areas being devoted to sugarcane. At the same time 
this increased area tends to increased injuriousness by insects 
and plant diseases. Very little in the way of securing efficient 
means of controlling either insects or plant diseases on sugar- 
cane has as yet been accomplished. I propose to point out bet- 
ter means of control. As the sugarcane insects of Hawaii are 
pretty exhaustively treated in U. S. Dept Agri. Bulletin No. 93, 
I will begin with a discussion of these. 

The most important sugarcane insect in Hawaii is the su- 
garcane leafhopper. It has been introduced from Australia. It 
has also been recorded from Java. With the lively commerce 
through the Panama Canal this exposes the canefields of the 
Southern States to continual danger of infestation. In addition 
as far back as 184.1 a related species feeding on sugarcane was 
recorded from the West Indies (p. 34). This "insect lives in 
company with its larva in large numbers behind leafsheaths, 
which it punctures to imbibe the sap of the plant. When mature 
it is exceedingly active in its habits, springing with suddenness 
from its resting place at the least disturbance..." [p. 12]. "..The 
leafhoppei, during heavy infestation will continue to puncture 
the midribs of the leaves as rapidly as the leaves unfold... Or- 
dinarily when disturbed the adult leafhopper does not fly, but 
moves off in an odd sidewise fashion to another part of the leaf, 
or springs suddenly to another portion of the plant. .."(p. 16). 

As to means of control officially advocated we have to con- 
sider direct measures, indirect measures and natural control. 



The direct measures are: Insecticides, collection by nets, cut- 
ting and burning" the infested centers, stripping the leaves, and 
burning of trash after harvesting (p. 22). In practice, admitt- 
edly, none of these things are of any value. Of insecticides no 
tangible results could be secured. Collecting by nets "was al- 
so discarded. "Cutting and burning showed"that the Adults were 
able to take flight from the burning cane and escape to adjoin- 
ing fields." Stripping the leaves "...showed... that in heavy 
infestation the internodes of the stalk of stripped cane contained 
hundreds of punctures from egg laying..." Burning of trash 
"...is the most effective method practiced for the control of the 
insects of sugar cane." But on page 33 Dr. Perkins is quoted 
as saying that "on the Colonial Sugar Refining Company's es- 
tate in Australia no such burning off is allowed. If this" (suppo- 
sition that this increases the number of natural enemies) "is cor- 
rect, it may help to account for the insignificant numbers of our 
cane leaf hoppers here..." 

One of the indirect measures consists in selection of varie 
ties of cane for planting As to resistance "...the Yellow Caledo- 
nia made the best showing." But as to sugar production— ton 
for ton— it seems to be inferior to other varieties, for, as usual, 
everything the Bureau hands out must be taken with a grain of 
salt— "it is for the planter to decide whether otfjiot jjfc advan- 
tage of one variety over another are offset by the ravag£s*T)f the 
leaf hopper..." (p. 24). - ^ 

Another indirect measure "natural methocrs, -'Consisting in 
intensive cultivation, fertilization and irrigation, resulted in a 
lower rate of loss than fields not so treated. Naturally, keeping 
the field clear of weeds early in the season tends to drive hop- 
pers to places not so clear. Whether with all fields so treated 
this would result in a decrease in number, taking the fields as a 
whole, is not at all proved. Another indirect means, diversifica- 
tion of crops, is recommended. This means a decrease in acre- 
age. Of course, if no cane were grown at all, and other possible 
food plants were kept down, it would be possible to starve the 
hopper out. 



NOV 29 Iblb 

©CU557445 



3 £ 

m< . .. 

Another indirect means claimed is the control of the rind 
disease of sugar cane." But the control is merely declared to 
ZJ be desirable, for no means of control does exist. 

The natural control consists in the fostering of natural ene- 
mies of the hopper. These are chiefly parasitic and predaceous 
insects, and certain fungus diseases. The burning of the trash 
is conceded to be inimical to the development and perpetuation 
of the parasitic and predaceous insects. And with burning of 
the trash, now officially considered to be imperative for the con- 
trol of cane insects ir general, it is now proposed, as far as con- 
trol of the leafhopper is concerned, to propagate and distribute 
the natural enemies artificially. 

Parasites are liable to be decimated at any time by hyper- 
parasites. "Several species of ants were very active about the 
leafhopper in the canefields, the honeydew being an attraction 
to them" (p. 28). That means that these ants will work towards 
the increase of the leaihorjper by attacking as far as possible the 
parasitic and predaceous insects that pray upon the leafhopper. 
And altogether there is reason to believe that most of what nat- 
ural control there is, comes through the working of the two fun- 
gus diseases that are present, "which long previously known to 
kill the native leafhoppers, have become transferred to the intro- 
duced pe^tf .."(p. 32). 

As this leafhopper lives behind the leafsheaths, there is 
just one thing that will work there and that is the hot airblast 
torch. This insect hides similarily to the chinchbug. I had shown 
as far back as 21 years that the blast from a common plumber's 
torch makes the chinchbugs and other insects capable of locomo- 
tion hidden behind the leafsheaths come out in a hurry and tum- 
ble to the ground where they can be killed by the blast at close 
range. I had shown that the best time for this is the cool part 
of the day, or spells of cool or wet weather. The higher the 
temperature the more readily will adult leafhoppers be able to 
jump or fly out of range. But during hot weather work against 
the adults with a torch can be kept up from the cool of the even- 
ing during all of the night and most of the forenoon, say 16 



hours out of 24. During the remaining 8 hours the work can be 
kept up, but the blast should approach the bugs in a backward 
stroke. In this way the bugs will not become restless enough 
to get away before the blast is upon them. 

The Hawaiian sugarcane borer is second in importance in 
Hawaii and this insect also hides, during the day, within the 
lower leaf sheaths as do many other injurious insects of less im- 
portance. The use of a torch will cause them to come out, most, 
if not all, will fall to the ground, there to be killed by the blast. 
The present official way consists in collecting the adult weevils 
by hand, either hidden behind the leafsheaths or hidden under 
split pieces of cane distributed through the field. 

Again, there is the sugarcane mealy bug "congregating for 
the most part behind the older leaves near the ground" (p, 44). 
An occasional licking will keep them down. The official means 
of control consists in "Selection of seed cane" and "Burning of 
trash" and, of course, "Natural enemies." Most if not all ants 
present protect and foster the mealybug, incidentally defending 
it against its natural enemies. Hence you see a need of a means 
control applicable to the growing cane, as furnished by a torch. 
This not only kills the ants it hits in licking of the bugs, but the 
ants can be traced to their nests and a blast blowing about it will 
bring the colony out so it can be destroyed. 

In Hawaii "an aphis... is occasionally injurious to cane" 
(p. 45). Remedy: The use of a hot airblast torch. Of course 
the use of a common plumber's torch is not advocated, some 
such type as is shown on last page should be used. 

"in some districts... a mole cricket... is sometimes abun- 
dant enough to be injurious. Another species... is a most impor- 
tant pest of sugarcane in the island of Porto Rico... wherever 
the Hawaiian mole crickets were numerous almost all of the seed 
cane was destroyed. ..''(p. 46). No official remedy. Free use of 
poultry will probably keep them under control. 

One of the most important sugarcane insects in Hawaii is 
the leafroller. An official means of control employed at times is 
"to send laborers through the fields to pinch the caterpillars in 



their retreat between the folded cane leaves. '* (p. 42). As this 
insect is sometimes so plentiful as to entirely strip the canefieldfe, 
this remedy will not do. When abundant patrolmg the younfe 
cane with poultry will be the means of getting rid of many of 
the moths. These apparently hide about the plant during the 
day and fly during the night. 

It is similar with various adults of army worms and cut 
worms and probably with a bud moth, mentioned on page 46. 
Most everj- year one or the other is more or less plentiful. Gen- 
erally speaking the best thing that can be done is to use the 
torch as a trap-light at night. How to use the torch shown on 
last page as the most successful trap-light in exister/e is ex- 
plained in detail on pages 25 and 26 of my Circular No. 153. It 
is done, in corn or cane, in substance by suspending the torch 
on a tripod made out of 3 pieces of light clear lumber 12 to 16 
or more feet long. The tank is hooked up in the apex; hose and 
pipe are allowed to drop. A cord is used to give the hose some 
slack, removing the strain. On the burner is hooked a pail. 
This pail is fitted up similar to a spittoon by having a funnel- 
shaped cover with a hole in the center. And over the burner is 
placed a piece of tin of the shape of a lampshade. A circle of 
light of about 1 h inches width is allowed to shine forth between 
the lower edge of the upper cone-shaped fitting and the rim of 
the pail. This allows the insects to fly in, there to bump against 
the red-hot burner, get stunned, and drop through the hole be- 
low into the pail. Or, if not so easily conquered, as happens 
with strongbodied insects, they will, in trying to get out bump 
in nearly all cases against the upper or lower cone-shaped fit- 
ting, and because of the narrow space, the intense heat and the 
poisonous air be quickly disabled to roll into the pail below. 
The poisonous air blowing downward through the hole soon puts 
a stop to all attempts to escape through this only possible out- 
let. I had shown in my Circular No. 153 that if sweet-smelling 
sweets, such as water and molasses were put into the pail, this 
would make the torch especially attractive to insects in general. 

This torch does not make a bright light. This in some re- 



6 

gpects is an advantage, as the insects, attracked cannot gauge the 
distance correctly and are knocked silly and trapped before they 
know what has happened. "...The Hawaiian sugarcane leaf- 
hopper is an insect readily attracted to light at night. .."(p. 14.) 
The weevil borer, most likely, is also attracted to light. If 'so, 
this will be of very considerable value, since this insect attacks, 
in Hawaii, also the banana, coconut palm, sago palm, royal 
palm, winepalm and papaia. "Dying coconut palms were ex- 
amined and in the tender heart of the palm were found great 
numbers of the insects (borers), in all stages" (p. 37). Of course 
an insect attacking tall trees, and living within in all stages, if 
attracted to light can be handled in no easier way than by the use 
of a trap that is capable of trapping in vast numbers. The leaf- 
roller moth, in all probability, can thus also be trapped. Poul- 
try in cane fields would probably be able to secure a fair share 
of the weevils. 

As explained on pages 26 and 27 of my Circular No. 154 the 
Bureau of Entomology has no system of trapping that is worth 
anything. Being created to promote entomological knowledge 
in its broadest sense, the Bureau rfas persistently to hinder all 
progress along the line shown by me by refusing to make check 
tests and give the results. Moreover the Bureau repeatedly told 
Members of Congress that were trying to get at the truth I am 
wrong on every point. The chairmen of the Congressional Com- 
mittees on Agriculture, Senator Thomas P. Gore and Represen- 
tative Asbury F Lever have never seen to it that the Entomolo- 
gist gives his reasons for making such a statement. 

A torch used as a trap works automatically. A quantity of 
gasoline, enough to run about the time desired, say four hours, 
is put in, air is pumped in, and the gasoline will use itself clear 
up without any attention. 

The mothborerof the Southern States can in all probality 
also be trapped, along with the weevil borers, now established 
since nine years in some places, together with the sugarcane 
beetle and other insects amenable to this method. 

The chief reliance for the control of the mothborer, howev- 



er, is to be found in the use of cum for attracting the last two 

broods, described in detail in my Circular No. 154, pp. 9 to 12, 
the original description being given pages 31 to 35 ot my Circu- 
lar Xo. 151. As the moths prefer tender corn to cane tor ovi- 
position, by providing patches of late planted corn in succession 
and using it for fodder, stover or silage, and finally trapping the 
borer to hibernating quarters, the borers there to be destroyed 
by plowing before emergence begins in the spring, the moth- 
borer is readily and cheaply controlled. Poultrv, if present to 
keep down other injurious insects, such as ants, is also helpful 
by securing part of the moths. 

Meanwhile the Bureau, instead of passing on the merits or 
de-merits ot this method, is nosing around for a natural enemy 
that secures the same result. One thing in this connection the 
Bureau refuses to make clear to the public. It is that while un- 
der primitive conditions natural enemies do usually effectively 
control injurious insects, under modern methods of agriculture 
food plants such as cane, corn, wheat are grown in vast tracts, 
enormously favoring multiplication of injurious insects, while 
safe hibernating places for parasitic insects are far less plentiful 
than under primitive condition, in fact would be almost absent if 
the Bureau's recommendation of destroying hibernating places 
for injurious insects were followed. Besides the injurious insects 
often can breed at a mean average temperature too low for the 
parasites to breed. 

In the Southern States the use of poultrv becomes impera- 
tive in cane through the presence of the Argentine ant, which 
fosters the development of the mealy bug and also of aphids. 
These ants unless kept down by poultry, would have to be kept 
down by the use of a torch. This use of a torch I had shown 
as far back as four years ago in my Circular No. 147 is the best 
thing to enable poultry to gain a start at a given place. The sum- 
mer nests ot this ant are very shallow and letting a blast blow 
about them brings the whole outfit out to be killed with the 
greatest ease. This then gives poultry roosting — and breeding 
places free of ants and enables them to bring the pests under 



control. The Bureau for the use of these ants in general recom- 
mends the use of poisoned ant syrup. You will readily see that 
in canefields or other vegetation supporting aphids or coccids 
this fails to work, if carried out, because the ants then prefer 
the excretions of these insects to all other food. Moreover all 
kinds of waste places make a natural home for these ants. To use 
poultry for control simply means to use a domesticated form of 
natural enemy. Further, ant syrup will poison the beneficial in- 
sects attracted to it. 

Froghoppers or spittle insects have also been found as far 
back as 191 1 in Louisiana and, 4ike the borer, may at any time 
attract big attention. They are sucking insects and respond to 
the use of a torch same as the mealy bug. "...if they get estab- 
lished in sugarcane there is no knowing what may happen.. ' : 
(Ent. Circ. No. 165, p. 4). No official means of control is sug- 
gested. Also "leaf hoppers in very small numbers were observ- 
ed (in 1912) several times during the season on sugarcane, but 
no injury due to them could be detected." (Ent. Circ. No, 171, 
p. 6). There also is "no kno\vmgL-what may happen." 

Another moth borer. Castnia licus, exists in the West In- 
dies. Its range extends northward to Mexico. "Collecting the 
moths by means of nets in the hands of children has given bet- 
ter results than any other direct means.." Ent. Circ. No'. 165, p 3. 
The adult is a day flying moth. Poultry might be able to secure 
some when ovipositing. "...The pupal stage is passed in the 
cane or in the soil near the underground portion..." (p. 2) Hence 
poultry might be expected to secure some pupae. "Its original 
food plants were species of the orchid family and of the- family 
of plants to which the pineapple belongs (Bromeliaceae)... in 
Trinidad it is known to attack sugarcane and bananas..." This 
would make it appear likely that, if introduced into the United 
States, it could be controlled by trapping it to corn same as the 
moth borer we now have. 



The recent publication of Farmers' Bulletin No. 944: Con- 
trolling the Garden Web Worm in Alfalfa Fields, through point- 



ing out the danger of serious damage by this species, and through 
failing to offer a satisfactory means of control makes the evi- 
dence given there suitable for showing the need for developing 
poultry raising to a scale laige enough to enable the farmers to 
cope with such pests when affecting cereal and forage crops, and 
also for pointing out the advantage that can be gained by trap- 
ping with light-traps certain insects, that are attracted to light, 
hence amenable to trapping, but which insects are not, because 
of poisonous hairs they carry while in the larval stage, or for 
other reasons, such as being out of reach, amenable to attack 
by poultry. 

"The garden web worm... has caused extensive damage to 
alfalfa in California, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, 
Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In infested localities of the last 
three states it is not uncommon for second or third annual cut- 
tings to be entirely destroyed by the pest" (p. 3). 

The food plants are given as corn and garden crops, beets, 
potatoes and other plants., "various crops/' alfalfa and cotton, 
and several kinds of weeds, showing it to be capable of existing 
upon most an\^ garden and forage plant and weed. The moth 
appears in the alfalfa fields about May 1st. After mating they 
deposit their eggs, usually in clusters of 40 or 50, upon the low- 
er surface of the leaves, usually on those near the top. "individ- 
ual females may deposit as many as 300 to 400 eggs. The eggs 
are laid on the alfalfa plants or on adjacent weeds... In the lati- 
tude of Kansas and Oklahoma there are, apparently, four gene- 
rations annually... The form or stage in which the insect over- 
winters in that latitude has not been definitely determined" [p 6] 
Thus a female emerging in the spring from a pupa, mating and 
producing only 100 females enables these, at the same low esti- 
mate to produce 10,000 females in the second generation, these 
to produce 1,000,000 females in the third generation and these 
cause, at 300 eggs each hatching, 300,000,000 of worms in the 
fourth generation, showing the enormous potential capacity for 
damage. "The moths are most active at night and are strongly 
attracted to light. .-"(p. 6). 



10 

For remedies the Bureau advises: Timeh T cuttings, brush 
drags, and clean cultivation. These means are absolutely inad- 
equate as will be shown. 

Both timely and untimely cuttings will naturally kill many 
larvae in the field, the "timely cuttings being given at an earlier 
date" than is customary. They are given at any time before 
damage gets too serious. It is simply a matter of cutting while 
there is yet something to cut. This, of course, is a set back to 
increase; but with the capacity of the insect for increase, its large 
range of food plants and large number of this insect present as 
pupa in the ground even then and with the adults capable, if 
need be, of flying for miles for suitable oviposition material, an 
alfalfa field necessarily becomes readily re-infested, in fact prob- 
ably offers the most favorable breeding material available on a 
large scale in the latter part of the season, especially if irrigated. 
A brush drag does not, under the circumstances, offer enough of 
a set back to amount to anything. 

"Clean cultivation methods are also of much value... Since 
pig weed and lamb's quarter are its favorite natural food plants, 
it is important that fields, fencerows and near-b}' waste ground 
be cleared of these and other weeds. The pest often breeds up- 
on such weeds and imigrates later to near-by alfalfa, w T hich would 
escape injury if these weeds were not present" (p. 7). As the 
pest is omnivorous, if its preferred food plants were to be re- 
moved, nearly every green thing would have to be kept down for 
miles around, since the adults are capable of flying long distan- 
ces if no suitable plant be close by. This destroys the natural 
grazing ground. and ruins the land by erosion, affecting, in turn, 
the capacity for navigation of rivers and harbors, the maintain- 
ance of power plants and the production of fish, for the same 
plan is advocated by the Bureau in the case of many other in- 
sects infesting field- and forage crops, and for insects in general. 
However, even if the "weeds" were "thus cleared off" for miles 
around, the pest would then simply feed and breed that much 
more severed on cultivated crops other than alfalfa when such 
is not available immediatelv following a cutting. 



II 

"In loose sandy soil" (the cocoons harboring the pupae) 
"are often slightly more than i % inches long, but 
in heavydry soil they usually are not more than one-half to three- 
fourths of an inch long... They extend downward in a nearly 
vertical position, the top end even with the surface of the soil. 
After about 10 days... the tiny adult or moth issues..." (p. 5). 
Thus, as at cutting time the soil is more or less stocked with 
pupae, if every larva be killed at cutting time, this set back with 
the enormous capacity for reproduction does not bring tangible 
results. 

The pupa is thus exposed to attack by poultry as is the cat- 
erpillar and the moth. It is reasonably certain that the insect 
hibernates mostly as pupa. The moths evidently emerge in the 
spring irregularly and at the time of any 'timely cutting' are pres- 
ent in any stage and can readily recover, even if the proportion 
of pupae then in the ground compared with the number of larvae 
then present be small. Thus, poultry given the run of the fields 
and waste places, the pest would be kept down. In addition, for 
quick and immediate effect, the adults can be trapped, as descib- 
ed on pages 5 and 6 of this Circular. 

The alfalfa fields might at the same time be affected by 
the alfalfa caterpillar. The adult is a butterfly. The cat- 
erpillar eats of the leaves and when grown spins up as a 
crysalis on alfalfa- or other stems. The insect hibernates as but- 
terfly, larva and pupa, chiefly as the latter in the cooler sections 
of its range, hidden away in trash in the ground, chiefty outside 
of the field. Poultry thus can attack the insect the year around 
and keep the pest easily down to harmless numbers In a way 
this is conceded in U. S. A. Bulletin No. 124, p. 28: ".-.Do- 
mestic fowls... play an important part in the history of this in- 
sect..." However the idea of using poultry on a vastly larger 
scale than is now done by merely employing the usual little 
farm flock is lacking, for the writer says on page 29: "From 
these observations it is seen that chickens may be utilized in 
small fields to keep down the numbers of alfalfa caterpillars and 
that turkeys, because of their roving nature, can be used to ad- 



12 

vantage in larger helds. Mr. Charles Springer, ot Cimarron, 
New Mexico, informs the writer that he hires a boy to herd an 
immense flock of turkeys on the range, so that they may feed up- 
on the grasshoppers destroying the grama grass and other range 
grasses It seems that the same method could be imployed in 
outbreaks of the alfalfa caterpillar ..". 

This is taking too narrow a view of the matter. Cimarron. 
New Mex. is in the heart of the New Mexico range caterpillar ter- 
ritory. I had shown in 1915 in mv Circular No. 146 that poultry 
could be used there to keep down the range caterpillar, attack- 
ing the grama grasses and other range vegetation, and also now 
invading cultivated crops, not by eating any of the growing cat- 
erpillars, but by attacking the insect during the seven months ot 
cool season while it is in the egg stage in clusters on grass, and 
weed stems slightly above the ground; also' bV eating of the 
young caterpillers before they acquire poisonous spines, and by 
eating of the pupae found in clusters on grass- and weed stems, 
and further by eating of the moths hanging during daytime 
quietly in plain view on — and weed stems during fall. All efforts 
to have the Bureau of Entomology admit that this idea is sound 
were futile. Now Mr. Springer demonstrates in practice that it 
can be done to keep down grass hoppers. As the grasshoppers 
hibernate as eggs in the ground, his turkeys have been feeding 
all along on pupae, adults, eggs and larvae of the range cater- 
pillar without his knowing it. What the Bureau knew in this 
connection was that the turkeys do not ( eat of the larvae after 
they have poisonous hairs, but such is the case only about two 
months out of the twelve. And if the matter were looked into 
closely, it would probably be found that Mr. Springer does it at 
a profit of several hundred per cent. However, even if the poul- 
try raising itself did not pay. it would pay indirectly big by pre- 
venting heavy loss to the ranch grasses and thus to the stock. 
As a matter of fact poultry thus given the run of vast tracts of 
low priced lands in large flocks in the care of a herder offers the 
most favorable conditions for producing poultry and eggs free ot 
disease. The flock, it was pointed out by me, can be protected 



by a movable wire fence at night. This enables the herder to 
trap or shoot wild animals trying to prey upon the poultry at 
night. At the high prices of furs, this goas a long way tc keep 
him paid. 

As a matter of fact, as explained on pages 7 to 9 of my Cir- 
cular No. 154, the New Mexico Biologist Entomologist utterly 
condem3d -this plan. It must be obvious that the more the country 
is cleared and given over to cultivation or to pasture, the less can 
birds maintain themselves in sufficient numbers to cope with the 
injurious insects stimulated to increase by an abundant supply 
of food, and that the natural remedy consists in using poultry 
under the control of man. If the Bureau's plan of 'clearing 
weeds' were carried through, this would remove the natural 
feeding ground for poultry while the fields offer little or no pick- 
ing. This renders the carrying through the winter of flocks of 
any great size impracticable, which is necessary to deal with out- 
breaks. 

xAlfalfa might also be attacked by the clover rootcurculio or 
by the clover root borer. The adults of both species are prob- 
ably attracted to light and might be trapped. But the most prac- 
tical means of control all around is the use of poultry to secure 
the adults as thev are about laying their eggs on the neck of the 
roots. Poultry also may be able to secure some of the larvae. 
Naturally the adults prefer to hibernate in nearby rank vegeta- 
tion, woods probably being the .most favorable. This same 
course I had shown for several years keeps the alfalfa weevil un- 
der control. 

In the case of the bean- and peaweevils, discussed in Far- 
mers' Bulletin No. 983, there is at present no official means 
known of affecting them in the field. Poultry, if admitted after 
-the plants have become well established, can be expected to se- 
cure many of the adults. When grown in quantity what damage 
poultry might do to peas and beans will be far offset by the num- 
ber of adult weevils they secure. It is likely these weevils are 
attracted to light and, if so, can be trapped in vast numbers by 
the use of a torch as described on page 5 of this Circular. 



5 14 

Treating the seeds after harvesting with fumigants. ,or, other 
means to destroy the grubs within is not going far enough, for 
many adults emerge in late summer and fall and escape before 
harvest or before treatment can be given. Also many adults es- 
cape from fallen seeds and scattered pods. These then re-infest 
the young crpp next spring and call for an efficient means of con- 
trol in the field. As some of the bean-infesting weevils have as 
man}' as 6-7 generations in the latitude of Washington, D. C., 
it is plain that with no means of control in the field available, a 
small number of weevils surviving the, winter is capable of de- 
stroying the crop. The use of a trap and the use of poultry .of- 
fer the only chance, of effective reduction during the growing 
seasons. 

In using such a trap, of .course, mariy other insects are 
caught, the catch showing just what insects, of those that ar^ at- 
tracted to light, are becoming .plentiful. Grain and forage crops 
on low lands are often infested by insects that normally live. an 
rank grasses .growing, in wet; places. Some of these aijetyhe bill- 
bugs, certain wireworms, and the rough headed cornstalk beetle, 
while there are other pests, haying similar effect, living on dry 
ground. No_ satisfactory official remedy is known. rli \s might 
be expected the Bureau advocates under these conditions t,he de- 
struction of the wild food plants, but these are needed, in low- 
land as soilbinders and as protection to ( creek and, river banks 
especially if there are no timber fringes,, and on higher lands 
the}', or other rank growth, are needed to prevent erosion. Wfaste 
is contrary to the laws of nature. What the Bureau of Ento- 
mology calls wastelands is natural feeding ground for stock and 
under modern methods of agriculture offers the best means , of 
carrying poultry in the cheapest manner through the winter, 

W r here grassland is to be plowed up, for corn, often, many 
cutworms, white grubs, pillbugs.and wire worms are present- 
The Bureau's.general remedy is to plow the land in that case ,as 
early as the late summer or early in the fall before. The aim, is 
tp starve the grub out. In the first place, a trap used the prev- 
tous summer would shovv the rate of infestation and would re- 



duce it. ' The most convenient time for plowing is late fall and 
early spring. Sod then turned down gives in a large measure 
support to the grubs and worms within while the corn is mak- 
ing a stand. In fact, it often happens that damage does not be- 
come apparent till the ..second year. These grubs and worms 
naturally want to. eat of the fresh growth above ground or of the 
roots or tubers in the ground. In the case of corn when sprout- 
ing there is. but little to eat for some weeks, hence the damage 
often ver}' heavy. This can be easily remedied by drilling in for 
every few rows of corn a row of some quickgrowing plant along- 
side the corn. Anything quickgrowing and succulent will do. 
Of grasses rye is probably best, and turnips or rankgrowing rad- 
ishes ought to be splendid. The latter might be broadcasted 
immediately after the plowing. Or some of these seeds mat* be 
added from time to time to the seed corn in the hopper at plant- 
ing time.< After the corft; i<s ; strong enough these protecting 
plants- can be removed. Poultry should have access to corn as 
soon as it is safe to admit it. 



" The Entomologist's report for the fiscal year ended June 30 
1918, makes reference to several newly introduced insect pests 
that are capable of doing very great damage unless better means 
of control than are now officially advocated are made to come 
into 'play. 

Among deciduous-fruit insects the so-called oriental peach 
moth easily ranks first. This insect was originally found in the 
District of Columbia and adjacent counties of Maryland, and has 
been described in Bulletin No. 209 of the Maryland Experiment 
Station, issued December, 1919. It belongs to the same famjly 
of moths the codling moth belongs to. This family, the Tox- 
icides, is very difficult to control. The codling moth, compared 
with the rest, is comparatively easy to control in sections where 
it has only a brood and a half, as it usually has in the north- 
eastern United States; for the reason that it has less generations 
than most of the rest, and because it has been found possible to 
destroy most of the'rirst brood by the proper use of" arsnicals. 



i6 

Where the codlingmoth has two or three broods it is difficult and 
expensive to control it under present methods. Here is a sam- 
ple of official utterances on this point: "... Spraying experiments 
..,in the Grand Valley of Colorado have indicated that a sked- 
uie of six applications of arsenate of lead at the rate of four 
pounds of the poudered product to 200 gallons of water, with the 
addition of four pounds of fish-oil soap, will make a very effec- 
tive treatment..." (Ent. Rep. for 1918, p. 1). The warmer the 
climate, the more difficult becomos control. . 

The oriental peachmoth, in part, differs from the codling 
mota in that it has four generations in Maryland in seasons 
when the codlingmoth has only two or, at most, a partial third: 
also the first two generations do not develop on the fruit, but on 
the young growing tips, causing a shrubby stunted growth, and 
cannot as readily be poisoned as can the first brood of worms of 
the codlingmoth. ''It is impossible to keep the 3'oung twigs 
coated with arsenical poison, though it is possible to prevent the 
larvae from entering the fruit (of peach) by a thorough applica- 
tion .." (Maryland Exp. Station Bull. No. 209, p. S). The in- 
sect attacks the twigs of peach, plumb, apricots and cherries. 
As the twigs harden, the third and fourth generations more and 
more attack the fruits of apple, quince, peach and probably 
others. "...Our most successful combination of insecticides du- 
ring 1917 was a mixture of self-boiled lime, sulphur, calcium 
.arsenate and tobacco, preceded by a winter application of con- 
centrated lime sulphur. Applications were made on April 30, 
May 2|, June 15, and July 13, the concentrated lime sulphur 
having been applied previous to April 30. This application gave 
a reduction of 31 per cent to twig injury.. ". To protect the 
fruits after July it would be necessary to apply poison 2 or 3 
times more. It will thus be seen that the control of this insect, 
and of the torticide in general, leaves much to be desired. "The 
occurence of the (oriental peach) pest has been definitely estab- 
lished (in December I9i7)by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture in Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut" (Md. 
Exp. Sta. Bull. No. 209, p. 8). This is doing pretty well for a 



17 

recently established pest and, in common with other pests yet 
to be discussed, shows how little can really be done to prevent 
the introduction of injurious pests and it also vividly shows that 
efforts to control them made by people other than those holding 
federal offices should be officially encouraged and not opposed, 
and that an official that opposes such efforts is a traitor to his 
country for purely selfish reasons. 

On pages 24 to 26 of my Circular No. 153 I described a 
method of trapping the codlingmoth and other insects attracted 
to light by the use of a torch in connection with sweetsmelling 
truitjuices. On pages 8 to 1 1 of my Circular No. 139 I pointed 
out in detail that while tests have shown that the codlingmoth is 
not attracted to light to any extent if let loose in a room that is 
diffused with light as would be the case in a room lighted by a 
large Rochester lamp, probably fitted with an opaque globe, 
which was the kind of lamp used to make the test the 
clj.itn chiefly rests on, my own accidental experience was, that a 
codlingmoth flew in through an open window of my room in May 
and repeatedly violently flew against the chimney of a common 
lamp that had a stiff paper lampshade and which lamp drew all 
its light upon a few square feet of desk surface, the rest of the 
room being practically dark. All efforts to have the U. S, En- 
tomologist test this point out to his own satisfaction and thus 
be in a position to act as judge, were futile. 

Further, I quote from Bulletin No. 142, p. 35, Cornell Uni- 
versity Experiment Station: "The codlingmoth has a slender, 
pointed tongue with which it sometimes sips or sucks' up sw T eet 
substances. Le Baron saw the moths feed freely upon lumps of 
moist sugar and slices of sweet apple which he placed in their 
cage. McMillan records that they willingly fed upon sweetened 
water and that he 'has seen those of the second brood feeding up- 
on the yellow flowers of an autumnal composite {GHndelia squ- 
arrosa) in the dusk of the evening," in Nebraska/' 

Strange enough, in spite of this evidence, the author, the 
late M. V. Slingerland, continues: "The weight of evidence 
from careful experiments indicate that the moths are not easily 



i8 

attracted to alluring baits of anykirkl." And, more strange, he 
follows this statement up with this record: "A Connecticut cor- 
respondent states in the Rural *New^ Yorker for Feb. 9th, 1897 
that 'happening' to pass a sweet bou^h apple-tree one evening 
in August, where a number of apples, half eaten by chickens, 
were lying scattered about, I noticed a kitten busily trying to 
catch some small object. On investigation I discovered that 
the hall-eaten apples were covered with codlingmoths. There 
were thousands of them, apparently feeding on the fruit. They 
were very active when disturbed. I procured a lor of old news- 
papers and for half an hour or more I kept several fires burning 
brightly, while the kitten and 1 stirred them up. 1 don't think 1 
succeeded in burning is many as the kitten caught. They care- 
fully avoided the fires." 

It is evident that these sweet apples had concentrated the 
codlingmoths from over a considerable area of pome fruits, and 
if it had been possible to kill them from time to time that area 
could have been thus protected against the second brood of 
worms. Naturally the moths avoid the fire. It cannot be rea- 
sonably assumed that even an insect strongly attracted to light, 
as are for instance most cutworm moths, would expose itself 
deliberately to injury. That, however, light loving inseGts do 
get rather frequently inadvertently injured when flying about 
lights was proved as stated on page 10 of my Circular No. 139, 
in a record given in Cornell Bulletin No. 202, by Mr. Slinger- 
land, where a mothcatcher, "while making rather a poorer show- 
ing than a traplantern'' caught about 3000 more of lace winged 
insects than did the traplantern. I pointed there out that the 
only tenable explanation for this can be found in the fact that 
the "mothcatcher" had an open flame, affecting lace wings, when 
a "traplantern" would not. 

In the case of using the torch for a trap, there is no bright 
fire to speak of anyway. What fire there is is yellowish red and 
is concentrated within a narrow chamber. The insects, from 
the lack of light outside, cannot at all readily gauge the distance 
and bump against the redhot burner before they know what 



19 

has happened. The conditions given in the record could have 
been improved for trapping by removing the sweet apples Irom 
the ground and putting into the pail hanging on the burner of 
torch as part of the outfit, some of these sweet apples, crushed, 
with some water added. This would give off a most inviting 
scent. For all around use, if no cheap suitable fruit is available, 
molasses is apt to be best. Under this plan there is no kerosene 
smell to act as a repellant. Mr. Slingerland's trap-light tests 
carried on with the use of kerosene as a killing agent, given in 
Cornell Bulletin No. 202, show that, in this case, the insects 
caught are mostly males, and what little females are caught have 
mostly laid their eggs. Tests made by others corroborate this. 

On page 43 ot Bulletin No. 142, issued in 1898, Mr. Slin- 
gerland makes this note: "The use of baits has recently recei- 
ved considerable attention in Germany and in Der Practische 
Ratgeber for 1895, is recorded an account of an experiment with 
glasses of apple jelly hung in the trees. We glean from the re- 
port that quite a number ot codlingmoths were thus captured, 
about half of them being females. Which shows that no matter 
how bone-dry things may get, the farmer, might, for industrial 
purposes, such as trapping codlingmoths and grape insects, put 
in a claim for a barrel each of hard cider and wine. The smell 
thus given off through this liquid being kept hot by the blast 
blowing down upon it, with the windfalls kept eaten up by hogs, 
will make this the chief source of attraction for the codlingmoth, 
other torticids and a host of other insects, injurious, beneficial 
and neutral. 

On page 18 of my Circular No. 153 I stated from D. A. 
Bulletin No. 491, p. 23, that tests in the case of the melonfly 
showed that access of newly emerged females to juices of cucum- 
bers greatly stimulated bodily forces, sexual activitv and egg- 
maturation: ./Corresponding juices in the case of other injurious 
insects, applejuices of some sort in the case of the codlingmoth 
for instance, used in connection with a trap, can then be assum- 
ed to offer the most effective means for their destruction. Also 
since this then concentrates the insects within a certain area, 



20 

bats and nightflying birds can thus catch a hundred where Other- 
wise they might catch one. 

In the case of the codlingmoth emergence of the adults in 
the spring is very irregular, but in the case of the oriental 
peachmoth "the first two broods are very distinct, the third and 
founh more or less confused" (Maryland Agr. Exp. Stat. Bull. 
209, p. 3). Hence a torch, supplied with some suitable sweet- 
smelling attractant, and used from time to time as needed du- 
ring warm dark nights up till fall, holds out a far better promise 
of success in controlling this new pest than anything that has 
yet been devised. 

The torch does not make a bright light. This in some ways 
is a disadvantage and in other respects an advantage. In the 
great majority of cases it is a decided advantage, for as the 
range of attraction extends, say, for 1000 teet in each direction, 
this about covers the area of the average farm. The farmer 
does not want to draw injurious insect away from his neighbors 
upon his farm. The brighter the light and the smaller the farm 
the less benefit does the farmer using a trap get and the more 
benefit, free of charge, do get the other farmers within the range 
of attraction of his trap. 

Inasmuch as any means of controlling injurious insects, de- 
struction of hibernating quarters for instance, always also more 
or less injures beneficial and neutral ones, it is necessary that 
the public be sufficiently educated in using a trap to know what 
they are mostly catching. The Bureau of Entomology was crea- 
ted to promote entomological knowledge in its broadest sense. 
For the U. S. Entomologist to deliberately lie by telling Mem- 
bers of Congress wishing to get at the truth I am wrong on ev- 
ery point means to humbug the people with their own good mon- 
ey, and the Chairmen of the Congressional Committees of Agri- 
culture, Senator Thomas P. Gore and Representative Ashbury 
F. Lever, full well know this. 

An insect might be highly injurious with no official satis- 
factory means of control known, might be nightflying but be re- 
pelled by bright light and even avoid diffused light. Naturally 



electric lights and even lanterns giving forth a mild clear light 
are out of question as traps in this case. To a lesser extent 
this then holds good also of a dull reddish-yellow light such as 
is given forth by a torch. If for a killing agent kerosene in 
an open pail be used then there is little chance, because of the off' 
ensive smell, that any such insect would be attracted, but if in- 
stead there were emanating from the pail an inviting sweet smell 
suggesting attractive food to be found only somewhere near the 
light given forth by Mich torch, this might alter the case radi- 
cally, and may often offer the only feasible means of control. 

An insect that, as far as official means of control are con- 
cerned, meets these conditions is the lesser cornstalkborer, de- 
scribed in Department Bulletin No. 539. This insect has a ve- 
rs' wide range of food plants. These include corn, cowpeas, 
crabgrass, Johnson grass, Milomaize, sugar cane, Japanse 
cane, sorghum, beans, peanuts, chufa, turnips, and wheat. The 
infested territory covers a quadrangle marked by Southern Cal- 
ifornia, Florida, Massachusetts and Iowa. It has in this terri- 
tory an average of four generations a year, and the average 
number of eggs deposited by the females in 190. In substance 
the Bureau of Entomology has nothing to suggest in the way of 
control than "cleaning up" and the plowing of fields. ''The 
borders and the terraces of the field should be gone over with a 
harrow to stir up the ground," This breaks up the winter quar- 
ters of pupae and causes them to perish" (p. 24J. The insect 
breeds and hibernates to a very large extent in what the Bureau 
habitually calls waste land! To "clean up'', these "waste pla- 
ces" is certainly some job. 

The Bureau of Public Roads, in one of its more recent pub- 
lications, Farmers' Bulletin No. 997: Terracing farm lands, 
points out at length the need of terracing sloping farm lands, 
by which is meant lands under the plow, while the U. S. Ento- 
mologist and his unlearned learned assistants never loose a 
chance to talk from the top of the bughouse of how to unterrace 
them. Even where the land is practicallv level it is necessarv 
to keep the ditches In grass, and the creek- and river banks in 



22 

grass and trees to prevent the banks from becoming undermined 
and thus, from this source alone, very largely fill up the creek- 
and river beds. Much other details on this very important sub- 
ject is found in Year Book Separate No. 688: Farm, Forests and 
Erosion. 

Of course, during all of the growing season there can be 
no such thing as cleaning up. Thus, evidently, the Bureau's 
system of control is worthless, since while this plan would de- 
stroy a small part of this and other injurious insects present du- 
ring the hibernating period, it does not effect the insect during 
the period of growth to any great extent, and the policy of 
"cleaning up" also cleans up the hibernating and breeding pla- 
ces of beneficial insects. 

In the case of the lesser cornstalkborer, moreover, we are 
not at all dependent upon a torch used as a trap. This insect 
is amendable to control by the free use of poultry. I have been 
showing for four years past that it is feasible to thus control a 
great variety of injurious insects. Why use a torch to trap a- 
dults, or a harrow to kill pupae over a limited space, when it is 
possible to use poultry the year around to keep the pest in check 
and when poultry in coing so secures a large part of its suste- 
nance? "It is seldom that larvae are found in the tunnels of 
the plants upon which they feed, but more often in specially con- 
structed tubes which lead away from the entrance to the tunnels 
in the stalk, lying even with or slightly beneath the surface of 
the ground or sometimes curved around the stem.,/' Thus you 
see this insect, as larva, is simply waiting to be picked off by 
poultry. The moths can also partly be secured by poultry. 

However, there are highly injurious insects where the use 
of a torch used as a trap offers the only feasible means of re- 
ducing the number of the species. The European pineshoot 
moth is a case in point. In this case the adult moths lay their 
eggs singlv into the terminal buds of pine trees, choosing pref- 
erably the apical cluster of buds, and in turn cause the leading 
shoot of the pines affected to become very badly crooked 
"...each one ol these insects does very considerable damage... 



These injured shoots bend downward and outward and after- 
wards grow upward again in a curve.." (Dep. Bull. No. 170, p. 
6). The insect shows preference for young trees. In my Circu- 
lar No. 145, published in 1915, and in subsequent Circulars, I 
had pointed out that the simplest means of control consists in 
pouring, at the approach of the egglaying season in summer, 
some semi-liquid clay into the apical whorl of buds. This then 
leaves all the rest of the terminals untreated and thus in nor- 
mal condition for oviposition. This protection is, of course, 
feasible only in the case of the smaller trees— unless the Bureau 
can devise a profitable system of using aeroplanes for this work, 
and for the reduction of the number of the adults the use of a 
trap as described — or a better one is the only thing that holds 
out hope of success. A trap as described, in this case prefera- 
bly used w 7 ith a sweetened decoction of pine twigs, would in all 
probability, give very good results. The moths might be adverse 
to light, but the presence of a scent resulting from the evapor- 
ation of a sweetened decoction of pine twigs within the pail 
would be likely to cause them to be trapped. While it does not 
seem feasible that poisoned sweets, suggested by the Bureau 
for the control of certain fruitflies, could be used, if t they were 
used, it would have to be found out what other insects, benefi- 
cial, injurious or neutral, are thus also destroyed. As the moths 
prefer nurseries, a trap located there would Largely protect more 
distant, larger trees. All the Bureau has to suggest in the way 
of control is to first let the insect infest the shoots, then send 
men through the woods, supposedly fitted with wings or exten- 
sion rubber necks, and have them remove the grubs and affect- 
ed buds and burn them, so that other buds left uninfested may 
make as near a straight growth as possible under the circumstan- 
ces. This treatment has to be given every year. Moreover there 
is danger that the moth, in this country, can develop two broods. 
Fancy what it would cost to examine a square mile of pines even 
once effectively this way. Yet the Bureau says I am wrong on 
every point, and the chairman ol the Congressional Committee 



24 

on Agriculture ai prove ol this course by doing nothing to force 
them to ma.<e any delinite statements. 

In his report for 1918 the Entomologist on page 5 mentions 
the introduction of the European cornborer. This insect is high- 
ly destructive and is similar in habits to the lesser cornstalk- 
borer, and also to the larger cornstalkborer, described 111 Farm- 
ers' Bulletin No. 1025. For the latter insect the Bureau's chief 
recommendation as to control is rotation of crops, nothing more 
direct being officially known. It belongs to the same genius as 
does the sugarcane borermoth. There are 3 or 4 generations a 
year, 

■ 'Fortunately the insect passes the winter in the stalks of 
its ho-t plants and winter destruction is therefore possible, al- 
though winter extermination of its host plants throughout its 
present range, on account of its numerous food plants, would be 
a matter of great difficulty and expense",.. "Among the culti- 
vated crops attacked in Europe are corn, hemp, hops, millet, 
several wild grasses and many common weeds. In this country 
corn is the principal crop seriously injured, but the damage to 
that crop is so serious as to cause the gravest apprehension 
should this insect spread into the great corn belt of the Middle 
West. The caterpillars, of which there are at least two genera- 
tions annually, bore into the stalk, ear and tassel ot the plant. 
Thirty or more individuals often are to be found in one stalk 
during the latter part of the summer. ...At present the area 
known to be infested (located in eastern Massachusetts) amounts 
to something more than 300 square miles..." 

Thus here you have a new pest breeding till it has covered 
300 square miles before it is even discovered. How many other, 
smaller infestations must then be expected to exist elsewhere? 

Chief Howard is reported in the press to have told the A- 
merican Philosophical Socienty at Philadelphia on April 25 that 
this pest also got a strong foothold in New York "if this borer 
reaches the cornfields of the West." he is reported to have said, 
"I do not see -what is going to save them..." The answer is 
easy. A rope around the little man's hind leg so that he cannot. 



as usual, crawfish away before he has made an answer in regard 
to the method of control I shall describe will save them. And 
moreover this will lead to a discussion that will save lots of 
other crops from serious injury, affecting such important insects 
as the bollweevil and the pink bollworm. The method is essen- 
tially the same as described by me for the control of the sugar 
cane borer moth on pages 32 to 35 of my Circular No. 151 two 
years ago, in regard to which Chiel Howard lias nut seen lit to 
make any statement, good, bad or indifferent. 

When in 1014 the European pineshoot moth was discovered 
on Long Island, investigations up to Feb. 9. 19 15, showed 
the insect to be present in nine states with '■indications very 
strong that the pest has become established in several 
other widely distributed localities." Yet all the while since the 
Bureau talked about exterminating this in.-ect. it was no trouble 
at all for the Entomologist thus far to work the public for a suck- 
er. The public sends men to Congress to guard its interests, 
and if these do not do so, an official of the Executive Depart- 
ment can dish up to a trusting public any old humbug while the 
dishing up is good. 

Of course, in the case ol the European cornborer, it is, be- 
cause of the large range of food plants and the large area even 
now admitted to be infested, absurd to talk about extermination. 
Nor can the pest be kept from spreading. Rigid quarantines 
will impede its progress at great cost. But a sound system of 
control will make it possible to do away with at least the more 
onerous provisions of quarantine, and incidentally keep the U. 
S. Entomologist from lying awake of nights. 

Apparently neither the larva nor the pupa in this case is a- 
menable to attack by poultry. Hence the use of a trap as 
shown, if possible, might be resorted to, if there were nothing 
better. But undoubtedly the best means of all consists in the ju- 
dicious use of trapcrops, properly managed, exactly the opposite 
to what the Entomologist proposes to use. He proposes the 
elimination of food plants — in this and many similar cases. 

In the early spring while all vegetation is succulent the in- 



2b 

sect is apt to oviposit on any suitable plant near by. Naturally 
it will prefer sweet corn to common corn, and common corn to 
most other plants and weeds. Hence the first generation of 
moths is not likely to be especially destructive to corn. Howev- 
er, since early sweet corn is apt to show a heavy infestation, the 
stalks should be fed, cut for stover or for silage as soon as the 
cars are gathered. The bulk of the damage is evidently dore 
through the moths of the second brood congregating upon field- 
corn. This field corn is apt to have then passed the tassel stage 
since several weeks and a small planting of corn and, especially 
sweet corn, just coming into tassel as the second brood of 
moths appear, would most likely attract the moths very largely 
away from the main crop grown for ears The trap crop, if 
field corn, will not mature properly and should be sown thinly for 
fodder to allow of the forming of a good many tassels. If sweet 
corn be used, being smaller and quicker in maturing, it is to be 
sown correspendingly later. This corn, used for traps, will 
then very largely concentrate the hibernating larvae, and, by 
being carefully utilized for feeding, will effectively check the 
pest. 

A pest similarly affecting corn is the pink cornworm, desc- 
ribed in U. S. Dept. Agr. Bulletin No. 363. This insect has 
about 4 generations a year. Nothing in the way of official con- 
trol is available except early harvesting, early husking and fu- 
migation of infested ears, calling for work at a time when work 
on the southern farm is most pressing: besides fumigation 
greatly adds to the cost. Thus the insect is admittedly beyond 
all official means of control during the period of increase. It oc- 
curs only in the cornbelt in injurious numbers, Mississippi hav- 
ing suffered \vc>rst thus far. Inquiry in Mississippi, however, 
shows upon information furnished by State Entomologist R. W. 
Harned that his State after two years of severe damage is no 
longer noticably affected. But serious outbreaks may have been 
omirrmg elsewhere right along. It is thought that the de- 
crease in cotton growing, or, what is more likely, the destruc- 
tion of the bolls in the tall by plowing-in, may have forced this 



insect to attack corn with corresponding severity. "...In the 
young squares (of cotton) ...the active little reddish larva ol 
this Batrachedra is very often found as unquestionably an ori- 
ginal inhabitant and it undoubtedly frequently causes quite an 
extensive shedding of the squares. This however, only occurs 
in the spring... later in the season the Batrachedra larva is found 
boring in the unopened flowerheads of various weeds'' ip. 131 . 

While it is likely that the adult, a moth, can be trapped as 
described, the fact that the adult oviposits very readily upon 
young cottonsquares can be taken advantage of to control this 
pest most easily. When the infested squares fall and poultry 
has the run of the field, they will attack these and other infested 
fallen squares for the grubs within. I had explained at length 
in my Circular No. 152, and as far back as my Circulars Xo. 
147 to 151, that the correct method of controlling the boll wee- 
vil consists in the use of poultry in connection with a trappatch 
•of late- planted cotton. This system of control I evolved to cope 
with the officially admitted tendency of the bollweevil to feed 
and breed in plants other than cotton, or to go without food and 
reproduction for long periods by secluding itself in the absence 
of acceptable food for feeding and breeding, in cool places well 
protected against heat and cold, thus conserving its vitality. I 
had shown from official evidence in my Circulars No. no to 154 
that the conditions in the cage tests the Bureau of Entomology 
carried on in an attempt to prove what results would happen in 
case stalks are destroyed in the field at a given date were not 
normal, and have also shown that where the conditions furnished 
in the cage did approach normal conditions the survival was 
much greater than was officially claimed, this work dating back- 
nine years. 

Under my plan poultry is to be given the run during the 
winter of the surroundings of the fields to be planted to cotton, 
lessening thus the number of the successfully hibernating wee- 
vils. When cotton comes up poultry given the run of the field and 
the surroundings will pick off most of the weevils and many oth. 
er insects that feed in the tips of the young cottonplants and al. 



so pick off many other insects on nearby "wasteplaces" where 
they aim to complete their first generation to go to cotton in the 
second generation. As squares form and become infested poul- 
try will attack the fallen squares for grubs. It will readily be 
seen that this is a continuous check to the multiplication of the 
bollweevil and permits of the setting of a large amount of fruit. 
However, to detract the bollweevil, the bollworm and injurious 
insects in general from the fruiting plants, a small plat, located 
in the center of the field, about the one-hundredth part of the 
field in size, is not planted till two or three months after the 
planting of the main patch. The seed to be used for this trap- 
patch may be any kind that produces plenty of squares, as far 
as concentrating weevils and other grubs is concerned, but if 
seed from the main crop is to be saved for planting, the seed for 
the trappatch should be the same as that used for the main crop. 
This trappatch offers an abundance of succulent squares 
late in the season, hence concentrates the bollweevil, the boll- 
worm and many other injurious insects, including the pink corn- 
worm to be there continually attacked by poultry in fallen squares 
and also, in a measure, as adults. The bollworm goes to hiber- 
nate in the ground and a plowing before emergence of the moths 
begins in the spring, but preferably a few w^eeks sooner because 
of other insects present, disposes of it. As virtually all this 
was pointed out to the Bureau of Entomology as long as 3 years 
ago, you see it is expensive for the people to allow themselves 
to be humbugged with their own good money by electing men to 
Congress that let such things go on even if their special duty is 
to prevent them. 



In this connection it will be well to consider the difficulty 
encountered in the control of fungus diseases affecting plants in 
general, and cereal- and forage crops in particular, under the 
methods advocated by the Bureau of Plant Industry, especially 
as recent press notices announce the presence of a new wheat 
disease, said to be caused by a fungus, in Illinois, the area in- 



29 

tested being given as 100,000 acres. Giving this as the area 
infested simply means that there exists no definite knowledge as 
to how great the infestation may be outside of this area. In the 
case of fungi the spread is caused by spores being watted by 
wind or carried by insects, birds and other means, and in the 
ease ot bacterial diseases spread takes place chiefly through vi- 
rus being carried by insects. 

The Bureau ot Plant Industry does not claim to possess 
any means that are feasible to control, in a commercial way, a 
fungus disease of a cereal- and forage crop while the crop is 
growing. During this period several generations of spores are 
developed, the more or less complete destruction of which would 
mean a more or less complete control of the disease. There is 
no record of a fungus disease ever having remained confined to 
a small area, not even for a short time. The Bureau's means of 
control in the case of cereal- and forage crops are substantiallv 
confined to treating the seed with a germicide and to advocate 
rotation of crops. This, naturally, often proves to be entirely 
inadequate. As is well known, fungi, as a rule, do their great- 
est damage during a period of continued heat and moisture, and 
if such periods do not occur most fungi do but little damage 
without any treatment being given. Consequent^ any system of 
control that even holds out merelv a slim chance of economically 
treating the disease during the growing season should have the 
most careful consideration of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 

The essential principle of such a system was discovered and 
pointed out by me as far back as 1898 in a treatise published at 
"Alt. Vernon, Illinois, and entitled: The Use of the Gasoline 
Torch in Fighting Insects and Fungi. I showed there that the 
blast as given forth by a common plumber's torch is capable of 
licking off the spores of fungi resting upon a leaf; that, therefore, 
if for instance this torch be used to lick lice and other insects off 
of cucurbits, involving in this case more especially the treatment 
of the lower side of the foliage and of the stems, so difficult to 
reach with sprays, the spores of fungi present are incidentally 
also destroyed. Previously, in the same year, I had pointed out 



30 

that the use of such a torch was far the most practical means 
then known of controlling the harlequin cabbagebug, an effort on 
my part in the fall ot 1896 to control this pest, then seriously ai- 
fectrng cabbage and allied plants in the latitude of Southern Ill- 
inois, having been the direct cause to make me see the possibilities 
of the use ol rlame and heat as given forth by a torch in the cen- 
trol ol insects. The season of 1897 was given over to investi- 
gations in regard to the possibilities of the use of such a torch 
on insects, and application lor copyright of my first treatise en- 
titled: The Use of the Gasoline Torch in Fighting Insects -was 
made on November 8, of the same year, the treatise being pub- 
lished the following spring after tests begun in the fall of 1897, 
had shown flame and heat as produced by such torch to be capa- 
ble of successfully controlling the San Jose Scale. I pointed 
then out that while certain biting insects can be readily controlled 
by the use of arsenicals, other biting insects and most sucking 
ones can be far more easily controlled by the use of such a torch 
than by any other way then known. The chinchbug was then 
very plentiful, and stress was laid upon the possibilities of the 
torch in the control of this insect. 1 pointed out that in cool 
weather, or during the chill of the night and morning in early 
summer, the chinchbugs hide largely under the clods near the 
base of the plant and can be destroyed without affecting at all 
materially the corn they congregate on upon the approaching 
maturity ot the small grain they infest in the spring. 

Soon upon publishing this treatise I found that this same 
discovery as regards the control of the chinchbug and certain 
other insects by the use of the plumber's torch had been made 
also in 1897 by Mr. J. M. Wmfreeof Nashville, III. I soon re- 
alized that a common plumber's torch while possessing the es- 
sential principle of control, was not the proper type of torch for 
an economical application of heat, and in 1903 got out the type 
of torch shown on last page. It was distinct from any other 
torch in that the airpump was located in the center of the tank, 
and the handle of the pistonrod was in the shape of a hook. This 
pistonrod could be locked by means of a pin against movement. 



making it possible, after. detaching the shoulderstraps, to hook 
the apparatus from branch 10 branch in a tree. 

One of these torches was sent to the State Entomologist of 
Illinois and in the fall of that year he made a report He would 
not admit that the torch is the best thing for the control of the 
chinchbug, claiming in another report that the soil barrier and 
post hole method, consisting of a furrow that has been pulveri- 
zed with a log drag and in which at intervals postholes have been 
dug. was a better method.. The chinchbugs cannot at all readily 
make their way over a finely pulverized furrow. In migrating, 
under this plan, they fall in, but are not supposed to be able to 
get out. They are supposed to make their way alongside the 
bottom of the furrow and to fall into the postholes, there to be 
killed by the use of kerosene or otherwise. 

The U. S. Bureau of Entomology Bulletin No. 95, part III, 
indirectly condemns this plan in two ways, first by not mention- 
ing it at all under means of control, and second by describing 
there the log drag method in place of it, condemning the barrier 
method by the statement that "the block (log drag) must be 
kept in constant use, from early until late and sometimes well 
into he night" since "often, during the migration, the bugs 
travel all night." Another method, the coal tar barrier, is, ad-, 
mittedly. "apparently costl} r and troublesome," requires free- 
dom from dust, presence of which means renewal of tar barrier 
"quite often." These matters are discussed at length on pages 
27 to 31 of my Circular No. 139. The Bureau admits that with 
the use or a torch "...generally one blast will cause all the bugs 
to fall to the ground where they can be burned..." The Bureau 
thus takes the liberty to quote from my copyrighted matter, and 
on the other hand, as a royalty, the U. S. Humbugologist tells 
Members of Congress I am wrong on every point. That's a steal 
pure and simple. 

Moreover a torch used for the chinchbug as described also 
incidentally enables the farmer to get rid 'of many other insects 
injurious to corn, and most of these are not affected at all by 
either the log drag or tar line method. The Illinois State Ento- 



32 

mologist said he had used the torch on woolly bear caterpillars 
just to find that they recover. He did not take the trouble to 
cage them and await results. He would have found in that case 
that they do not survive any length of time. He said little or 
nothing in regard to the effect the frequent slight application of 
the blast has on soft bodied insects such as lice. 

As to fungus control he said he found that the blast licked 
off a coating of fungus spores on lilac leaves, but found that 
spores reappeared in a few days. He thus furnished proof, that 
the blast kills spores of fungi as claimed, for the spores that 
subsequently appeared bad been thrown out by the mycelium 
working inside the leaf, showing that the leaf had not been in- 
jured in destroying previously the spores that had matured up- 
on it. 

Of other torches sent out for experimental purposes one was 
tested by the Cornell University Experiment Station. Prof.- John 
Craig, as mentioned substantially on page 31 of my Circular No. 
139, reported he had destroyed the San Jose scale upon medlars 
without injuring the cambium, but said this torch is too small 
to treat orchards, trees being often as high as 40 feet. This is 
correct. But there is nothing in the way to get up any kind of 
torch for any purpose, that, too, without interfering with any 
possible patents. The fundamental principle of the inherent 
success of this method rests in the cheapness with which the 
killing agent -the blast — can be produced. 

At that time the lime-sulphur spray for 'the San Jose scale 
had not come into general use in the Eastern States. This spray 
went a long way to economically control this pest and also fun- 
gus diseases, but as subsequently described in my Circulars No, 
139 to 154, especially on pages 11 to 14 of my Circular No. 147, 
torches can be constructed for orchardwork along the line of 
tower spraying outfits that will enable several men to attack in- 
sects and fungi, and do this work with surprising ease, cheap- 
ness and all around efficiency, winter and summer. 

For instance California and the Eastern States are now be- 
ing overrun by the pear thrips. I pointed out in detail on pages 



i ^lcpwhere that where this in- 

a L An at blossoming tune, in a lev aay {hat such 

d f rroo and thus requires prompt action. _1 SD ine . sulphate 

iiSillli 

wmmmm 

action. * . . ahout 4- weeks auim.-> nnres and 

as a good many large! u 



34 

poultr\ T handy by to pick them up. However, I also showed that 
.this is not necessary. I showed that the ease, swiftness and 
cheapness with which the blast can be applied makes if feasible 
to lick the ground with the blast, thus disposing of all the fal- 
len larvae. 

The Bureau of Plant Industry lays stress upon the need of 
controlling fungi, and the Bureau of Entomology lays stress up- 
on the need of controlling insects, and the two of them show you 
many killing agents and many apparatus to meet the require- 
ments for applying these killing agents under the many vary- 
ing conditions that occur. At the same time the Bureau of Plant 
Industry extolls the blessings of proper landscape gardening a- 
ronnd the home, of proper flower-gardening around the home, of 
the home fruit garden, and the home vegetable garden, all ot 
which means growing a great variety of vegetation from tail 
trees, down to grass. 

As in a general way each plant has its insect- and fungus 
enemies, if tall trees are affected these trees in home grounds 
usually are not accessible to the heavy power-spraying outfits 
these Bureaus recommend, whereas with or without the help ot a 
ladder as may be suitable, you can treat tall trees with the type 
of torch shown on last page. You might have some cabbages 
affected with worms. These usually can be killed easil} r with 
arsenicals and, if no other trouble is present, this is a very good, 
if not the best way. But these cabbages, or your melons, or 
peas, or rosebushes might be infested with aphids or other 
sucking insects. In that case under the Bureau's plan, you 
have to use some of their contact insecticides. If onion thrips, 
or other thrips, pear thrips for instance, is present, under their 
plan you have to know how to make and apply nicotine-sulphate 
solutions; and for fungi other stuff, depending upon whether it 
is the dormant or growing season. Whereas the use of a torch 
as shown on last page serves all these manifold purposes far 
more easily and cheaply, than any other method under the cir- 
cumstances. If the Bureau of Plant Industry and Entomology 
do not want to admit this, let them go ahead and show why. 



On pages 39 to 41 of my Circular No. 151 you find an ac- 
count of how torches can be constructed largely out ol fittings 
such as would make up a tower blast torch outfit, that will make 
it possible to apply heat to insects affecting cereal- and forage 
crops that require a contact insecticide as does the spring grain 
aphis or the spinach aphis, detailed information being given on 
pages 12 and 13 of my Circular No. 144 and elsewhere. The 
Bureau has no feasible means of control, whereas it is easy to 
fit up a cart or some light automobile truck with a tank supply- 
ing gasoline under pressure and feeding any desired number of 
burners. And this same method at the same time destroys the 
spores of fungi that come in the way of the burners, thus keep- 
ing down the fungus diseases affecting these crops. 

As for freeing the seed grain of fungus spores this can also 
be secured by the use of a blast, by letting the seed slide slowly 
down over a wired screen and letting one torch, or, bet'ter, two 
or more torches from different directions, play upon the seed, 
thus licking it clean. This does not injure its germinating qual- 
ities and costs only a small part of the Bureau's plan. 

There are several important other insects mentioned in the 
Entomologist's report that call for consideration here. Of new 
pests there is the Japanese beetle, mentioned on page 5. It is a 
very general feeder having thus far been recorded from a total 
of 41 plants. "The insect attacks the ends of sweetcorn and in 
the movement of green corn to market can be scattered to vari- 
ous parts." "It appears that the beetle was brought into this 
country in shipments of Japanese iris during the summer of 1911. 
...Some 625 acres are now heavily infested... and it is scatter- 
ing^' found over some 7000 to 10000 acres, with outlying infes- 
tations over not less than 25000 acres... The immature stages 
are passed in the soil where the larvae feed on decaying vege- 
table matter. The adults appear by midsummer, continuing un- 
til cool weather in the fall. During hot days the beetles are 
strong fliers, which adds much to the danger of their spread..." 

Let us see: 25000 acres is about 39 square miles. A circle 
with a radius of 3^ 2 miles would about include this area. Thus 






«.a.'toel«'l™«''K;B««5-i"»'»P 1 «' e ', „,„, during dur 

of control, it cot As tne reason 

sown corn, especially** ^ first place no go es 
en^ of sweeten he e ^"^il, held- 
why, wlth ^/distributed. ^ should not attacK 

more generally d istr gtrong fl , ers during n be 

corn But w h e w . th con a f avon e too P egpe _ 

mid .summer tiU tan, tassels of ate s ° ■ stage . 

possible to attrac t he adu ls are ,n the P^ 1 tassels 

dally sweetcorn, when ^ apart s0 as to piov s> 

A little such corn so*" ^ decidedly concentrate tt do 

ture stages ot tne m 



air-blast torch and while it is an insect feeding normally onl> 
upon cruciferous plants such as cabbage, turnip and horseradish, 
the adults congregate largely, especially during hot weather, up- 
on tassels of sweetcorn and can there be picked off by hand or 
by the judicious use of a blast, approaching them going back- 
wards to cover them quickly and effectively with the blast. The 
Bureau has since then published the statement that the use of a 
torch- is effective and practical in all stages except the egg, giv- 
ing no credit to me for priority, this action constituting a de- 
liberate infringement of copyright. 

In practice this happens to be of but little consequence, be- 
cause as a matter of fact I have since then devised a much bet- 
ter way of control. I showed that, in as much as the immature 
stages congregate upon the under side of the leaves in colonies 
and have to be looked after separately involving much time a 
much better way consists in concentrating the adults, in plain 
view for action upon them. This can easily be done, -if only care 
is taken that some cruciferous plants are allowed to bloom and 
seed at intervals during the growing season. The adults will 
then congregate upon the seedheads, and poultry given access 
will pick them off, making the control of this highly injurious in- 
sect in a way automatic. 

Plainly sound as this method is, it, with all else I have ever 
written, according to the U. S. Entomologist, is all wrong. The 
Bureau of Entomology was created to promote entomological 
knowledge in its broadest sense. 

"The so-called grape mealybug has become troublesome in 
parts of California... This is a difficult insect to handle, '.since it 
secrets itself under shreds of bark where sprays cannotreach it 
readily" (Ent. Report 1918, p. 2). Yes. sprays such as the Bu- 
reau has been using cannot reach it readily, but a blast from a 
hot air torch can do it easily and cheaply, and it was shown to 
the Entomologist for many years that this is so in the case of 
many insects that are similarly concealed. Moreover the grape 
is subject to several troubles that cannot be nearly as'well han- 
dled with anything than a torch. A blast from a torch is the 



38 

very best means to control the grape leaf hopper. During the 
early part of the season before breeding is well under way it is 
just under these shreds of bark that the hibernated hopper seeks 
protection against cold and wet, at which time an application is 
most effective. Again, even in the drier sections of California 
the growers have to fight fungus, in this case the kind known as 
Oidium. The blast of a torch licks off the spores of this fungus 
and does away with the much more expensive use of sulphur, 
now relied upon to relieve this trouble. 

The alfalfa weevil is on page six shown to have extended its 
range considerably, as usual, and on the other hand is credited 
with being held in check "materially" by important natural en- 
emies. I had shown on page 1 1 of my Circular No. 151 from 
D. A. Bulletin No. 107, p. 57, that, given the chance, poultry 
is the best possible control measure imported or otherwise, and 
this would then work also on most other alfalfa insects, includ- 
ing grasshoppers. 

Finally on page 9 jot his report the Entomologist speaks a- 
bout 'sweetpotato weevil eradication and control.' This insect has 
recently been discussed by the Bureau of Entomology in Farmers' 
BuUetin No. 1020. Records as there given on page 8 show that 
the weevil was present near New Orleans, La,, as far back as 
1875 and at Manatel, Fla in 1878. It appears, serious damage 
did not occur to an}' great extent until recent years. This, con- 
sidering the long time since its original introduction, brings up 
the^ question of food plants. "..,the insect breeds exclusively 
on sweet potatoes and closely related plants such as morning 
glory and bindweed... "(p. 16). The "closely related plants" 
include the.whole botanical family of Convolvulaceae. Under 
Figure 5 is shown a Florida beach being overrun with the beach 
morning glory, to give a little idea of what job it is to carry out 
the proposed means of control by "keeping down volunteer 
sweet potatoes and all plants of the morning glory family, cul- 
tivated or wild" (p. 24) In Figure 6 is shown a "corner of a va- 
cant lot in southern Florida, showing mat of wild or volunteer 
sweet potato vines badly infested hy the sweet potato weevil. " 



There is every reason to believe that the damage to culti- 
vated sweet potatoes has become pronounced chiefly because the 
wild food plants have become more and more excessively infest- 
ed. To eradicate the wild convolvulaccae, granted it were feas- 
ible, simply means, aside from driving the then there existing 
weevils to cultivated sweet potatoes, to make that much room 
for some other plants that may breed insects or fungi affecting 
some other crop. It will be found to be indefinitely more feasi- 
ble to keep these con vol villa ceae reasonably free of the weevils 
when you stop to consider what poultry on a large scale can be 
reasonably expected to accomplish. This all the more as sweet 
potato vines are apt to become infested by the mealy bug, and 
especially as the territory known to be infested by the sweet po- 
tato weevil is largely infested by the Argentine ant, which, as is 
well known, fosters these insects. With this ant capable of 
breeding anywhere in rotting vegetable matter, and preferring, 
whenever available, the excretions of aphids and coccids to all 
other foods, you can readily see that the Bureau's plan of using 
poisoned sweets to control this ant, aside from its many draw- 
backs cannot begin to touch this pest at large and that control 
at large of this ant is only possible by a systematic and exten- 
sive use of poultry, this all the more as poultry in small num- 
bers cannot hold its own against the ant, since the ant attacks 
the hatching chicks, which in turn proves that poultry is by na- 
ture an enemy of the ant, as claimed by me as long as four years 
ago in my Circular No. 147. pp, 26 to 28. 

Of course it is very good practice, as recommended by the 
Bureau, to have, if otherwise practical, pigs eat up the remnants 
of the sweetpotato crop. Also there is little doubt that arseni- 
cals early in the season are helpful as claimed, but unless the 
uncultivated convolvulaceaa are taken care of, there is everyrea- 
son to believe that with a female liable to lay as many as 300 
eggs and four generations a year, there will as the wild food 
plants become more and more heavily infested, be a constant 
heavy dispersion from these wild foodplants to cultivated crops, 
and that if thes wild foodplants are kept reasonably clear by the 



40 

use of poultry, the cultivated plants are kept easily free by the 
use of poultry also. 

"Weevils in all stages may be found in buried roots along 
the gulf coast during the winter" (p. 5)- As it is the toppart of 
the root that is infested, poultry can readily get at the weevils 
by scratching. "The red and yellow colors of this insect on the 
metallic blue background of the body are undoubtedly of a warn- 
ing nature." Hence, possibly, poultry might be cautions about 
attacking the weevils. There appears to be no good reason, 
however, why they should not readily eat the larvae and pupae. 
"..The larvae on hatching tunnel through the vines to the roots, 
the vines die and frequently the roots become badly riddled and 
filled with excreta, imparting such a bitter taste that even swine 
will not eat them,.. "(p. 12). Which counts against the use of 
swine, but poultry is apt to find these larvae to be choice mor- 
sels. 

Should poultry not do this work sufficiently satisfactory, or 
not be available, the use of a hot air blast applied with some 
such torch as shown on last page will prove of more benefit than 
anything else chat can be used in the way of artificial control. 
In that case the operator will find it expedient to carry a stick 
in the left hand to raise and move the vines a little, exposing 
the weevil to the direct blast. Incidentally this treatment to 
that extent keeps down other insects, and is especially of value 
^against insects that require a contact insecticide spray, which, 
with vines, is exceedingly difficult and expensive to use. 

It can be put down as an axiom that the rate of spread of 
an insect is controlled by its food- and breeding supply. Thus 
in the case of the bollweevil official tests have shown that hiber- 
nated weevils upon touching young cotton without squares mov- 
ed only 0.35 foot per day; and I was able to show from an offi- 
cial test, that even after squares had been set: weevils do not 
move more than necessary to secure squares, in one case an in- 
festation beginning at about the time of the setting of squares 
having been confined by August 6 still to a small area, evidently 
because of the small number of weevils causing the original in- 



4i 

testation in that case. Yet with uninfested squares more or less 
completely absent, the weevils have been known to readily pass 
over non-cotton-producing territory 40 miles wide without diffi- 
culty. Hence while the sweet potato weevil apparently is a weak 
flyer, there is no reason to expect that in case of insufficient 
breeding material on wild plants, it would not assiduously hunt 
for the more suitable cultivated sweetpotato plants that may 
have been kept protected in a way by the use of arsenicals, and 
find them even if they should be a good many miles away. 



Contrary to a statement on page 20 of this Circular Senator 
Thomas P. Gore and Representative Asbury F. Lever are no 
longer chairmen of the Congressional Committees on Agriculture, 
having with the majority in Congress passing to the Rebublicans 
been superseded by Senator Asle J. Gronna and Representative 
Gilbert N. Hangen. 



According to the U. S. Entomologist I am wrong on every 
point. Naturally he will not want to agree with me when I say 
the country owes him for his extra work done as humbugolist at 
least a six month's course of treatment at some first class peni- 
tentiary to get the humbug bacillus out of his system. In any 
case, I do not propose to worry my head off. If the Governors 
of the states chiefly affected, their Officials in charge of Agricul- 
ture and their State Delegations to Congress do not want to take 
any interest in the matter, I simply shall bide my time till the 
public has of the U. S. Entomologist's humbugology had its fill. 

Under date of December 16, 1918 Secretary of Agriculture 
Houston handed to the Governors at their meeting at Annapolis, 
Md., a lot of sugarcoated talk about the beauties of co-operation 
in matters agricultural, but all efforts in the past to get him to 
order Chief Howard to discuss the issues involved were futile. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS M* 

021 468 204 7 



